From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishcountenancecoun‧te‧nance1 /ˈkaʊntənəns/ noun [countable]EXPRESSION ON somebody'S FACE literary your face or your expression All colour drained from her countenance.
Examples from the Corpus
countenance• His dignified person and agreeable countenance, with the most unaffected affability gave me high satisfaction.• Then she put down the hairbrush and inspected her countenance.• Despite his troubles, his countenance was always friendly.• He remembered the merchant, long, lanky, and lugubrious of countenance.countenancecountenance2 verb [transitive] ACCEPT formal to accept, support, or approve of somethingcountenance (somebody) doing something I will not countenance you being rude to Dr Baxter.→ See Verb tableExamples from the Corpus
countenance• Fabricators will try to make their account watertight and will not countenance accepting any blame.• Yet the irreligious Jinnah wanted two religious states, while the religious Gandhi would countenance only a united secular state.• This has resulted in a deadlock where neither side will countenance providing an amnesty for the other for crimes against humanity.• Would he really countenance such a daft proposal?• He said that he would not countenance such an attack, and ordered Clark to call it off.• How could I possibly countenance such thoughts?• In no way will we countenance terrorism in order to advance our cause.Origin countenance1 (1200-1300) Old French contenance “behavior”, from Latin continentia “holding back from doing what you want, continence”, from continere; → CONTAIN 